Someone by Alice McDermott. We first meet Marie, a bespectacled seven-year old who is standing on the steps of her Brooklyn townhouse waiting for her father. The story of Marie's life enfolds as we follow her through milestones of loss, love, marriage and motherhood.

As a mystery reader, have you noticed how often food is described in the story? Someone is always sitting down to a meal or being called from a meal. The following feature caterers, bakers, and recipes.

The whip: a novel by Karen Kondazian — Based on the true story of a woman, Charlotte "Charley" Parkhurst (1812-1879) who lived most of her extraordinary life as a man in the old west. As a young woman in Rhode Island, she fell in love with a runaway slave and had his child. The destruction of her family drove her west to California, dressed as a man, to track the killer of her daughter.

1984: a novel by George Orwell ; with an afterword by Erich Fromm — Written in 1948, George Orwell's classic novel created a chilling future where Big Brother and the Thought Police monitored every move. And while the year 1984 has come and gone, Orwell's haunting vision of the world remains timeless.